[ECP] Educational CyberPlayGround Net Happenings News and Resources

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Greetings,

Wild weather over here - major rain, flooding and snow - yuck!

Very sad reading for today.

32 Killed in Virginia Tech Shootings, At Least 24 Injured
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041600533.html?hpid=topnews
April 16, 2007; 3:32 PM
Thirty-two people reportedly were killed and more than two dozen injured during a shooting rampage this morning at Virginia Tech, making it the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, law enforcement sources said this afternoon. The unidentified shooter was among the dead, according to officials, at West Ambler Johnston, a dormitory, and Norris Hall, which houses the College of Engineering. Authorities said the first shooting was reported shortly after 7 a.m. at the dorm and the second about two hours later at Norris Hall. Law enforcement sources said a single shooter was responsible for both incidents. 

best,
<Karen>


1)
Researchers Explore Scrapping Internet
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1610306,00.html
Although it has already taken nearly four decades to get
this far in building the Internet, some university researchers with
the federal government's blessing want to scrap all that and start over.
The idea may seem unthinkable, even absurd, but many believe a "clean
slate" approach is the only way to truly address security, mobility
and other challenges that have cropped up since UCLA professor
Leonard Kleinrock helped supervise the first exchange of meaningless
test data between two machines on Sept. 2, 1969.
The Internet "works well in many situations but was designed for
completely different assumptions," said Dipankar Raychaudhuri, a
Rutgers University professor overseeing three clean-slate projects.
"It's sort of a miracle that it continues to work well today."
No longer constrained by slow connections and computer processors and
high costs for storage, researchers say the time has come to rethink
the Internet's underlying architecture, a move that could mean
replacing networking equipment and rewriting software on computers to
better channel future traffic over the existing pipes.


2)
Divorce and Cyber-Stalking,
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/13/AR200
7041302392.html>
the illegal monitoring of private information and communication of ex-lovers
and spouses as a form of domestic violence. The spurned often use global
positioning systems, invasive computer programs, cellphone monitoring
chips and tiny cameras to follow the whereabouts, goings-on and personal
communications of unsuspecting victims.

3)
Expert Teachers Want Pay for Performance
http://www.teacherleaders.org/teachersolutions/
A group of expert teachers from across the country is calling for
radical changes in the way teachers have traditionally been
compensated, saying teachers are ready for performance-pay that truly
advances student achievement and the teaching profession.

4)
Prom night at Turner County High in Georgia has always been segregated.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18034102/?GT1=9246
white students organized their own unofficial prom, while black
students did the same. This year's group of seniors didn't want that
legacy. When the four senior class officers -- two whites and two
blacks -- met with Principal Chad Stone at the start of the school
year, they had more on their minds than changes to the school's dress
code. They wanted an all-school prom. They wanted everyone invited.
And there's talk around the school that some white students might
throw a competing party at a nearby lake.

5)
1987-2007 Political Values, Attitudes  and Trends
<http://pewresearch.org/pubs/434/trends-in-political-values-and-core-attitudes-1987-2007>
The study of the public's political values and attitudes by the Pew
Research Center for the People & the Press -- the most recent in a
series of such reports dating back to 1987 -- finds a pattern of
rising support since the mid-1990s for government action to help
disadvantaged Americans. More Americans believe that the government
has a responsibility to take care of people who cannot take care of
themselves, and that it should help more needy people even if it means
going deeper into debt.

6)
Education Reform Report "Tough Choices or Tough Times"
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_5603961
The new is the first national report of its kind in recent years to
truly address and challenge the deeply entrenched and systemic
factory-model nature of our educational system. It also has an
enormous business bias and urges education to yet again to operate
more like modern business -- a notion that has both merit and enormous
dangers, depending on how its complex (and vague) vision of
performance standards and enlightened instructional practices are, in
fact, applied.

7)
Over selling  the value of 0-3 years in Infant Brain Growth
http://www.educationsector.org/analysis/analysis_show.htm?doc_id=469729
Over the past decade, it has become conventional wisdom in many
education circles that sufficient stimulation in the first three years
of life can go a long way toward hardwiring the brain for success.
Sara Mead explains what existing evidence really does -- and does not
-- say about brain development from ages zero to three. Mead points
out some of the problems caused by the overselling of the importance
of the first three years and argues for a more reasoned approach to
early childhood development.

8)
Welcome to the Education Leadership Policy Toolkit
http://www.ecs.org/metlifetoolkit/
a unique online resource for state policymakers, school district officials,
principals and classroom teachers. The Toolkit is the product of a two-year
effort by ECS, underwritten by the MetLife Foundation, to enlarge awareness
and understanding of the policies, practices and processes that serve to
strengthen leadership for reform and improvement in schools and districts.

*********************************************************************
PLEASE ADD YOUR K12 SCHOOL OR SCHOOL DISTRICT
TO THE  MASTER DIRECTORY OF SCHOOLS ONLINE
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/schools/

The registry is organized by state and by grade level.
The registry also includes sites for charter Schools, virtual schools,
school districts, state and regional education organizations, state
departments of education, state standards and state administrators.
*********************************************************************

9)
The Education Research $ Gravy Train questioned!!
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Teachers/standards.html
More than five years after President Bush's No Child Left Behind law
told educators to rely on "scientifically based" methods, the science
produced is often inconclusive, politically charged or less than
useful for classroom teachers. And when it is useful, it often is
misused or ignored altogether, reports Greg Toppo in USA TODAY. As the
88th annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association
(AERA) takes place this week in Chicago, critics say the USA's huge
community of education researchers -- 14,000 are attending -- often
studies topics that do little to help schools solve practical problems
such as how to train teachers, how to raise skills, how to lower
dropout rates and whether smaller classes really make a difference.
Others defend AERA's work and that of researchers in general but say
the patchwork system of public schools makes it hard even for relevant
research to reach the classroom.

10)
How to sustain Arts Education in Public Housing Communities
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Arts/curriculum.html
The National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts has released the
Creative Communities Initiative Summary Report. The report summarizes
strategies for successful arts education partnerships with public
housing communities. Findings were gleaned from an extraordinary
three-year, $4.65 million partnership between the National Endowment
for the Arts (NEA), U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD), and National Guild. Many of the findings are relevant to a wide
range of cross-sector arts education partnerships. The Initiative was
successful in delivering high-quality arts instruction to more than
7,000 children and youth. Of these students, 94 percent reported
feelings of safety and belonging in their classes, more than 90
percent reported wanting to learn more about the arts, and more than
75 percent felt that their capacity for self-expression increased.
Evaluation results indicated that the Initiative had limited success
in achieving its goal of fostering sustained partnerships between
community schools and public housing communities. Only five of the 20
partnerships were able to continue their programs beyond the
three-year term of the initiative.
ALSO SEE "Grants to Improve Teaching and Learning in the Arts"

11)
Free Open Source Quality Teaching and Learning Resources
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/TECHNOLOGY_AND_LEARNING.html
The Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education has
just released OER Commons
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/OpenSource.html
the first comprehensive open learning network that enables users to
find freely available high-quality teaching and learning materials.
Created with and for educators, students, and self-learners, this
broad selection of open educational resources for K-12 and higher
education can be browsed, searched, and enhanced using collaborative
social networking features, such as tags, ratings, and reviews. The
goal of OER Commons is to bring innovation to teachers and learners
around the world. Within its first month, OER Commons has forged
alliances with over 60 major content partners in order to provide a
single point of access through which educators and learners can search
across collections to access over 9,000 open educational resources,
read and provide descriptive information about each resource, and
retrieve the ones they need. There are a wide range of educational
resources, from complete courses to learning modules to library
documents, and from algebra to zoology, all in one place. Many of the
resources use one of the popular Creative Commons licenses.

12)
2006: Released Key State PK Education Policy Attitutudes.
http://www.ccsso.org/Publications/Download.cfm?Filename=KSP%202006%20Final.pdf
This CCSSO report informs policymakers and educators about the current
status of key education policies across the 50 states that define and
shape elementary and secondary education in public schools. The report
is part of a continuing biennial series by the Council's state
education indicators program. CCSSO reports 50-state information on
policies regarding teacher preparation and certification, high school
graduation requirements, student assessment programs, school time, and
student attendance. The report also includes state-by-state
information on content standards and curriculum, teacher assessment,
and school leader/administrator licensure.


GRANT AND SCHOLARSHIPS
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Teachers/grants.html

"Innovation Grants for Individual Teachers"
http://www.nike.com/jumpman23/features/fundamentals/how.html
Jordan Fundamentals Innovation Grants are available to individual
teachers or paraprofessionals to support development of more effective
approaches of traditional strategies to engage students and foster
improved outcomes in classrooms. Maximum Award: $2,500. Eligibility:
public school teachers or paraprofessionals grades 1-12. At least 50
percent of the school's student population must be eligible for the
free or reduced school lunch program.
Deadline: May 1, 2007.

"Inspiration Grants for Teams of Teachers"
http://www.nike.com/jumpman23/features/fundamentals/how.html
Jordan Fundamentals Inspiration Grants will be awarded to teams of
teachers to support scaling-up implementation of approaches developed
with Jordan Fundamentals Innovation Grants that hold promise for
scalability and replication. Multi-year funding for Inspiration Grants
will require evidence of sustainability.
Maximum Award: $10,000.
Eligibility: public school teachers or paraprofessionals grades 1-12.
At least 50 percent of the school's student population must be
eligible for the free or reduced school lunch program.
Deadline: May 1, 2007.

"Grants for Accelerated Learning & Academic Enrichment Programs for
Low-Income Youth"
http://jackkentcookefoundation.org/jkcf_web/content.aspx?page=5426435
The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation seeks nonprofit providers of
accelerated learning or academic enrichment programs for grants (over
a period of three years) to increase access to such programs for low-
to moderate-income students ages 5 through 12 with exceptional
academic promise. Maximum Award: $600,000. Eligibility: Nonprofit
providers of accelerated learning or academic enrichment programs.
Since proposals for these grants are solicited by invitation only,
those who wish to apply for a grant but have not received an
invitation must first submit a letter of interest and receive an
invitation. Unsolicited applications will not be accepted.
Deadline: June 1, 2007.

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